An evolution long in coming, the era of Gigabit WiFi is finally here. The age of 802.11ac is upon us, with most new devices containing chipsets featuring this WiFi standard. What this means is WiFi speeds theoretically surpassing the 1Gbps barrier for the first time, with even more impressive performances to come as the standard moves beyond its Wave 1 capabilities to even faster iterations.
Although Wifi speeds surpassing the 1Gbps mark may only be theoretical, we believe that 802.11ac is still roughly three times faster than 802.11n (which also offers considerably less throughput than its advertised 450Mbps), and has the advantage of improved range facilitated by its directional 'beamforming' feature. It's also more likely to be operating in the 5Ghz frequency range, which typically has less interferance.
The old idea of wireless being inferior to Ethernet is coming to an end with the rise of this significantly faster standard. Soon it will be possible for organisations to roll out wireless networks without the need for wired connections as well. Sounds great right? Well, here’s what you need to know if you’re planning on migrating your wireless network to 802.11ac.
3 Key Points to Remember When Considering an 802.11ac Migration
1. Don’t Stress, It's Backwards-Compatible
Many organisations may express reticence at making the migration to 802.11ac due to potential compatibility issues, but these are unfounded. If you’ve worried about this issue yourself, rest assured – the 802.11ac standard is backwards compatible.
This means that users still using older standards, such as 802.11a/b/g/n will continue to have functionality on an 802.11ac network, with operational standards as fast as their respective technology allows. The latest generation of 802.11n access points still provides excellent service in the areas of throughput and support for video and voice applications. If higher capacities of performance are needed, administrators can always install 802.11ac access points to meet their needs.
2. Migration is a Cinch
While it may seem daunting, migrating to 802.11ac doesn’t have to be. By using cloud-based architecture, such as Cisco's Meraki, administrators can enjoy the simplicity of a plug-and-play experience when adding access points to their wireless network. All the complexities of configuration and settings are eliminated thanks to automatic retrieval of the optimum settings and configurations from the cloud.
There’s even the option of mixing 802.11ac access points with 802.11n, according to capacity needs in an organisation, all of which can be overseen from a single dashboard (in the case of the Cisco Meraki range).
3. You Can Avoid those Bottlenecks
Cloud-based access point management, such as Meraki, is out-of-band. Essentially wireless traffic never passes through a controller or the cloud, eliminating the occurrence of pesky bottlenecks that slow performance, often as a result of legacy architecture based on hardware controller appliances.
You can’t go wrong with making the move towards migrating to 802.11ac. The future is here, and today’s user expects a wireless experience that is smoother, faster and more reliable than ever before. Take your organisation’s wireless network into the realm of excellence by making the move. You won’t regret it.
